A number of recent enquires suggests that it's probably a good time for an update on the cycle/footbridge project. After David Cameron's pledge to kick-start a "cycling revolution" our hopes were high that funding might even become available in the lifetime of this parliament. Sadly, it seems our optimism was misplaced. Funding for cycling would have to increase thirteenfold to meet a government pledge to double the number of people travelling by bicycle (that is, people wishing to journey from A - B and does not include the out-of-town, road-racing, lycra-clad pelotons who make life so frustrating for motorists by turning Lower Hampton Road, Thames Street and Fordbridge Road into a racetrack!).
Analysis by Cycling UK showed that annual funding for cycling in England would be cut to two thirds of its present level by the end of the decade and that the annual £314 million pot for cycling over the next five years would decline rapidly. Funding will stand at £95 million this year and next before dropping to £45.5 million in 2018-19; and £33 million in 2020-21 (or 72p per person per year outside London).
All very disappointing and while it doesn't necessarily kick our project into the long grass it does mean we will have to make a huge adjustment to our expectations about seeing a bridge built in the near future.
